ALBANY,
N.Y. (June 9, 2012) -- Dozens of school and community volunteers came
together June 9 to bring a new playground to Giffen Memorial Elementary
School and the city's South End.

The City School District of Albany has received
$25,000 in grants from three organizations to make the project possible.
Dr Pepper Snapple Group and national non-profit KaBOOM! awarded the
district a $15,000 Let’s Play Community Construction Grant. The
Albany County Strategic Alliance for Health provided a $10,000
award.

The project also included a beautifcation of the school grounds, with
volunteers clearing a significant amount of brush and trees from the
area surrounding the playground, and planting flowers and doing general
landscaping around the school grounds.

“We are grateful to these exceptionally generous organizations for
providing our school district with the resources and support to bring a
playground to Giffen and the South End community,” said Superintendent
Raymond Colucciello, Ed.D. “This is an outstanding partnership that will
help children be more active and healthy while they are having fun.”

The Dr Pepple Snapple Group/KaBoom! grant is part of the Let’s Play
initiative introduced in November of 2010 – a $15 million, three-year
commitment from Dr Pepper Snapple Group to KaBOOM!, the national
non-profit saving play by ensuring there is a great place to play within
walking distance of every child. Together, through Let’s Play, Dr.
Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM! will build or fix up 2,000 playgrounds
by the end of 2013, benefiting an estimated five million children across
North America.

Albany County is one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
Strategic Alliance for Health (SAH) communities. Its purpose is to
enable communities to reduce the burden of chronic disease through
sustainable, evidence-based chronic disease prevention and health
promotion programs that focus on policy and environmental change as
opposed to individual behavior changes.

“This playground is an example of how we can provide a community
resource that will promote physical activity as a healthy choice for
kids,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy. “When kids have a
positive experience and see exercise as fun, we can effect real change.
There are approximately 4,000 residents within a half-mile of Giffen
that can benefit by this $10,000 grant."

Giffen educates more than 450 students from prekindergarten through
grade 6. While Giffen’s primary goal is to educate students, the school
plays a crucial role in the fabric of the city’s South End. The new
Giffen playground will become an essential part of the school and
community. In fact, the entire neighborhood will enjoy both its
appearance and its usages.

“Nothing can make one’s heart smile more than the sight and sound of
children laughing, learning and playing together,” said Giffen Principal
Maxine Fantroy-Ford, Ed.D.

Unstructured, child-directed play has been proven to help kids develop
physically, socially and cognitively, yet today’s kids have less time
and fewer opportunities to play than any previous generation. Via Let’s
Play grants and projects in 2011, Dr Pepper Snapple Group and KaBOOM!
built or improved 528 playgrounds, benefitting an estimated 1.3 million
children during the lifetime of the playgrounds. People are encouraged
to visit Let’s Play at
www.LetsPlay.com to join the conversation and learn how to apply for
the various available grants to make their communities more active and
playful.

About Albany
County

Albany County is made up of three cities, six villages and 10 towns
with a population of 304,204. The county is made up of urban, suburban
and rural communities. The Albany County Strategic Alliance for Health
is a coalition of partners devoted to getting at the root cause of poor
nutrition, lack of physical activity and tobacco use to eradicate
chronic diseases of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

About Dr Pepper
Snapple Group

Dr Pepper
Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS) is the leading producer of flavored beverages
in North America and the Caribbean. Our success is fueled by more than
50 brands that are synonymous with refreshment, fun and flavor. We have
six of the top 10 non-cola soft drinks, and nine of our 12 leading
brands are No. 1 in their flavor categories. In addition to our flagship
Dr Pepper and Snapple brands, our portfolio includes Sunkist soda, 7UP,
A&W, Canada Dry, Crush, Mott's, Squirt, Hawaiian Punch, Penafiel,
Clamato, Schweppes, Venom Energy, Rose’s and Mr & Mrs T mixers. To learn
more about our iconic brands and Plano, Texas-based company, please
visitwww.drpeppersnapple.com.

About Let’s
Play

Let’s
Play is a community partnership led by Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE:
DPS) to get kids and families active nationwide. The first Let’s Play
initiative is a $15 million, three-year commitment to KaBOOM!, the
national non-profit that’s saving play. Together, through Let’s Play,
DPS and KaBOOM! will build or fix up 2,000 playgrounds by the end of
2013, benefiting an estimated five million children across North
America. For more information, visit Let’s Play on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/letsplay
or online at www.LetsPlay.com.

About KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to
saving play. Children today spend less time playing outdoors than any
previous generation, a fact that is having disastrous consequences on
their health, achievement levels and overall well-being. To fight this
play deficit, social entrepreneur Darell Hammond founded non-profit
KaBOOM! in 1996 in Washington, D.C., with a vision of creating a great
place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Since
then, KaBOOM! has mapped over 89,000 places to play, built more than
2,000 playgrounds, and successfully advocated for play policies in
hundreds of cities across the country. KaBOOM! also provides communities
with online tools to self-organize and take action to support play on
both a local and national level. Hammond chronicles the founding of the
organization and the importance of the cause of play in his
TheNew York Times Best
SellerKaBOOM!: How One Man
Built a Movement to Save Play. The book
details how businesses and communities can work together to save play
for children across the country. All author proceeds support KaBOOM!.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., KaBOOM! also has offices in Chicago
and San Mateo, Calif. For more information, visitwww.kaboom.org.

The mission of the City School District of
Albany is to educate and nurture all students to be
responsible citizens, critical thinkers and lifelong learners to
successfully compete in the global community by providing an
academically rigorous and safe environment in partnership with parents,
students and the community. The district serves about 8,700
students in 15
elementary, middle and high schools. In addition to neighborhood
schools, the district includes several magnet schools and programs, as
well as other innovative academic opportunities for students, including four themed academies at Albany High
School.